I cannot believe that I did not know this story already. In fact, I knew very little about Hot Springs, Arkansas other than as a hot spring. But this story about its gambling history is phenomenal and peppered with extremely colorful characters, including the author's father, uncles and grandmother. Of course, any story about gambling in the mid-20th century is going to include a lot of mobsters but the author keeps the focus on Hot Springs and not the mafia (or Las Vegas, for that matter). This is a story that needs to be told and would make a phenomenal series or film. You will not be able to put this down once the story gets going.